I’ve been “doing jail ministry” for about 5 or 6 months now, a weekly visit that has become the most rewarding appointment on my schedule.
This week, I find myself having to correct myself after the grace talk got out of bounds as I quoted “all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial.” I was trying to drive home the point that all mature believers know, that when our motives are rooted in love for Christ and others, nothing we do will be against the law, but some things will still have negative consequences.
2 Timothy 3:16 says: “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness…” (ESV). The discussion persists – grace replaced the law. Jesus showed how utterly impossible it is to attain righteousness though following the law, lest we would have to cut off our hands and gouge out our eyes!
The bloke I was teaching with wanted to drive home the true point that “If we are in relationship with the father, then we do not need the law”, but I ran with it in a wrong direction, and made a statement about all things being permissible, which I now need to correct. We still need to instruct, correct, and train in righteousness, and using the 10 commandments is a good foundation for morality. I think of it as the bar that is set really low, we need to discipline our selves to to them at the least!
Jesus raised the bar, and now God’s law is written in our hearts, and we will be subject to HIM–not the law of stone, out of love for Him. This however is a concept that often takes a little maturity to grasp.
To illustrate this, consider the young couple getting married. How much greater the chances of success would be if he were told “You can’t continue to go out with your old girlfriends.”? It should seem obvious, but for too many immature married men, actions continue that sabotage the relationship. Once the healthy marriage relationship is in place, after the honeymoon, intentional married life, children and shared experiences, the mature married man learns to love his wife more fully, be less selfish, and now would never consider doing things that would endanger the relationship. He now will do all the right things out of love for his bride.